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Dr. Rand Paul Champions Fiscally Conservative Solutions

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) once again took a stand for common-sense budgeting and respecting American taxpayers’ resources by putting the U.S. Senate on the record on his amendment to offset $4.5 billion in border funding with cuts to wasteful spending.

“While there is a humanitarian crisis at the border, we also have in our country a debt crisis,” Dr. Paul stated in a speech on the Senate floor this afternoon, later adding, “We should not borrow the money, pull out the credit card yet again, every time a crisis occurs. Congress has an obligation to find lower priorities to cut to pay for higher priorities. I thought that’s what legislating was about.”

“I’m proposing to actually pay for this by taking the money from a part of the budget that it’s being wasted and put it into the humanitarian crisis at the border,” he noted.

Dr. Paul’s amendment would have rescinded unobligated balances for FY 2019 for the East-West Center, which was highlighted in the Citizens Against Government Waste’s 2019 Congressional Pig Book on wasteful spending. Previously, even the Obama administration had proposed significantly reducing funding for the Center.

It would also have rescinded unobligated balances for FY 2019 for the Inter-American Foundation, a past topic of his Waste Reports that is largely duplicative of USAID and has used American taxpayer dollars on projects including teaching circus arts in Argentina, helping deported illegal immigrants start a business (and without being able to rule out that the money would not go to criminal deportees), jumpstarting the Haitian film industry, and promoting a Haitian dance troupe.

Finally, to account for the remainder of the offset, Dr. Paul’s amendment would have rescinded unobligated balances for FY 2019 bilateral economic assistance (Title III funds), where government has also wasted taxpayer money.

You can watch Dr. Paul’s speech HERE, and you can read his amendment below: